India slams Wang Yi on his J&K comments at Islamabad OIC meet

On the eve of Chinese Foreign Minister’s visit here, India has taken strong umbrage to Minister Wang Yi’s uncharitable remarks on Kashmir during his address to the OIC conference in Islamabad today.

Not the one to take things lying down, the Narendra Modi government made it clear that Jammu and Kashmir was entirely internal affairs of India and that other OIC countries plus China had no locus standi to comment. It also reminded China and OIC countries that India refrains from public judgement on their internal issues. A warning that this status may change in future.

“We reject the uncalled reference to India by the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his speech at the Opening Ceremony,” said Indian spokesman this evening. Minister Wang is arriving in India tomorrow for a two day exploratory visit with the objective of putting the derailed bilateral ties back on rails.
 

At the OIC meeting, Wang said : "On Kashmir, we have heard again today the calls of many of our Islamic friends. And China shares the same hope." The statement by Minister Wang was open-ended and effectively offered support to all that was spoken on Jammu and Kashmir by the OIC foreign ministers.

While New Delhi was looking forward to understand Minister Wang’s perspective on how to push bilateral relations towards normalcy, his uncalled remarks on Kashmir will turn out to be dampener during his New Delhi visit. The foreign minister's visit to India was at the request of China with New Delhi terming it as an exploratory mission.

It is pertinent to recall that India refrains from commenting on the Sunni Muslim Uighur repression in Xinjiang and the Buddhist repression in Tibet apart from maintaining balance on status of Taiwan and new security laws in Hong Kong. China, on its part, doesn't reciprocate to the Indian gesture and has commented on the status of J&K time and again in order to appease its client state Pakistan.

While China expects India to reiterate “One China policy” ad nauseam, it refuses to recognize the Indian sensitivity on the Pakistan terroir hit Jammu and Kashmir. It may be recalled that former Indian Foreign Minister (late) Sushma Swaraj once had publicly stated that if China want India to recognize “One China” policy that it has to also recognize “One India” policy.